Tesco is to tap into the growing vinyl music market by selling rock band Iron Maiden¬ís new album.

GENERAL MERCHANDISE

Tesco to tap into growing vinyl music market

1 September 2015 | by The Retail Bulletin

Tesco is to tap into the growing vinyl music market by selling rock band Iron Maiden¬ís new album.

The band’s first studio offering in five years, The Book Of Souls will be released on Friday 4 September, with the triple LP format going on sale in 55 of the supermarket’s largest Tesco Extra stores.

The supermarket said it may look at introducing more vinyl albums by the end of the year.

According to data from the British Phonographic Institute, the vinyl album revival has been gaining momentum year-on-year with sales up by more than 50% in 2014. Vinyl albums have bucked the downward sales trend in the last year of other music formats such as CDs which fell by 6.5% and downloads which dropped by nearly 9%. The only other music format in growth is streaming which grew by 78% last year.

Tesco music buyer Michael Mulligan said: “In the last year we began selling record decks in our largest stores and initial sales are very encouraging so giving our customers some new vinyl to play on those decks seems like the logical next step.

“Tesco is a team of over 500,000 people in 12 markets dedicated to providing the most compelling offer to our customers. Our core purpose is to make what matters better, together.

“And there can be no better way to launch this trial than working with one of rock music’s most iconic bands and their eagerly anticipated new album.

“We are anticipating demand for The Book Of Souls to be high as Iron Maiden’s last album was the band’s most successful to date, reaching number one in 28 countries including the UK.

“If this trial is a success then we would consider selling more vinyl albums before the end of the year.”

After bottoming out at just over 205,000 vinyl albums in 2007, UK sales have grown every year since and in 2014 reached almost 1.3 million – the highest annual total since 1995.

Mulligan added: “The trend for vinyl doesn’t seem to be confined to one particular age group. Parents are getting their old vinyl albums down from the loft and teenagers are discovering the joys of the 12 inch record for the first time.”

Customers will also be able to enjoy Iron Maiden’s own brand of beer called Trooper with Tesco offering them the opportunity in its Extra stores to purchase a 500ml bottle for £1 when bought with the LP or CD, instead of the regular retail price of £1.99.

Iron Maiden co-manager Dave Shack said: “It was a proud moment when the UK’s biggest supermarket created a landmark opportunity for us to present our fans with a one-stop shop for our brand new album & award winning Trooper beer.

“We have put a lot of energy into all our formats of the new record but the vinyl has to be one of the most impressive packages I have ever seen.

“It’s a triple gatefold sleeve housing six sides of premium 180g vinyl and incorporates some unique, quite spectacular artwork across the whole package – something that can only be done with vinyl due to the space this format offers.”

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